Tesla CEO Elon Musk gestures as he visits the development website online of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Gruenheide close to Berlin, Germany, August 13, 2021.
Patrick Pleul | Reuters
Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned all the way through the corporate’s fourth-quarter profits name that the corporate may not free up any new fashions this 12 months, and is not recently creating a $25,000 automotive.
In his opening remarks, he mentioned that the continued chip scarcity would make it inconceivable to free up new type automobiles with out leading to fewer overall automobiles being delivered.
“If we had offered say a brand new automotive remaining 12 months, we might — overall automobile output would were the similar as a result of the limitations — the chips’ constraints in particular.” He persevered, “So, we will be able to now not be introducing new automobile ranges this 12 months. It could now not make any sense.”
Later, according to a query a couple of lower-priced Tesla for mainstream shoppers, Musk mentioned that undertaking isn’t recently underway.
“We aren’t recently running at the $25,000 automotive,” Musk mentioned. ” Sooner or later we will be able to. Now we have sufficient on our plate at this time. An excessive amount of on our plate, frankly.”
Musk has again and again urged a $25,000 Tesla is imaginable. He mentioned in 2018 it might take Tesla about 3 years to broaden — despite the fact that he did not supply a timeline for when it will occur. And in 2020, Musk urged on the corporate’s shareholder’s assembly that Tesla would release this sort of automotive throughout the subsequent 3 years.
“About 3 years from now, we are assured we will make an overly compelling $25,000 electrical automobile that is additionally totally independent,” he claimed in 2020. Musk is infamous, alternatively, for being overly positive along with his predictions.
As a substitute of rolling out new fashions, together with the Cybertruck and Semi, in 2022, Tesla will center of attention on its driverless automobile tech building, and scaling manufacturing at its current factories this 12 months, executives mentioned on Wednesday’s profits name.
Subscribe to CNBC on YouTube.